is to see that this
channel is kept free from obstruction. In general, the probation officer
should be the best friend of the other social workers, since he knows
their language. Indeed, many social workers themselves combine the
office of probation officer with their other duties.

After the institution of court proceedings the outside social worker has
usually little chance to affect the disposition of the case. This is
made by the judge on the basis of the testimony he elicits in court, and
on that of any preliminary investigation he may have caused to be made.
Disposition may be:

1. In rare instances, to dismiss the complaint altogether.

2. To remand for a later hearing.

3. To induce the woman to drop her complaint and give the man
another chance.[29]

4. To place the man under court order to stay away from home and pay
his wife a stated amount weekly. Custom differs in different places
as to whether payment shall be direct to the wife, through the
probation officer or clerk of court, or through public or private
charities.

5. To order the man to return home and contribute a stated amount.

6. To place on probation (together with either 4 or 5).

7. Commitment--usually to jail or workhouse, and for a period of not
over six months. May be longer for violation of probation or for
aggravated offense.

When the deserting man has gone without the borders of the state, there
is the added problem of securing his extradition, which is often a
difficult one. Wife desertion is in most states only a misdemeanor (in
New York it is even less serious and constitutes in the eye of the law
only disorderly conduct). Since extradition between states has to be
acted upon by the governors of the states, it is unusual (though not
impossible[30]) to secure extradition for a misdemeanor. The reluctance
of the authorities is understandable, however, when it is realized that
to extradite for wife desertion would be to create a precedent for
extradition for any sort of misdemeanor. There is in most states a law
which makes the abandonment of a minor child or children a felony,
punishable by a long term in state prison, and it is this law which is
generally invoked when the man has been traced to another state.
Complaint then has to be made to the district (or county) attorney, the
matter taken before the grand jury and an indictment secured before
extradition papers can